How M510DC SSD + PostgreSQL Combo Brings High Performance and Easy Scale-Up to Business Intelligence Platforms

Variety is constant, change is constant and demands are constant when designing and deploying a new business intelligence/decision support system (BI/DSS) platform. Build too small and you won’t get the answers you need fast enough for them to matter; build too large and you overshoot the budget; build an inflexible design and you’re stuck without a way to easily expand — possibly for several refresh cycles.

Workload-Focused SSD Design

The workload for BI/DSS is relatively straightforward, regardless of the underlying database (PostgreSQL and Microsoft SQL Server are the most popular for BI/DSS). Empirical data shows that BI/DSS is a highly read-focused workload. Looking at measured read vs. write percentages for PostgreSQL, even as we scale our simultaneous user count from one to six, the read and write percentages are pretty fixed: most BI/DSS work (query execution) is nearly 97% read. (We’d expect roughly the same percentage from Microsoft SQL Server as well, but let’s stick with PostgreSQL for this post.) Read-focused I/O requires read-focused storage that’s designed from the ground up to support massive amounts of data being read. The best solution is a data center-class SSD, like Micron’s M510DC, which we designed for heavily read-focused workloads.

Faster Query Run Times Yield Better Platform Value

Because BI/DSS is so heavily read-centric, there’s a direct relationship between the storage system’s ability to process read requests and the reduced completion time for each request. This I/O load translates to read megabytes/second (MB/s), which is at the heart of the M510DC’s design.

Scale as You Grow

Because of its approachable price point, widely deployed SATA interface, and improved aggregate read performance as more drives are added, our M510DC SSD also enables easy scale-as-you-grow performance, letting you adapt to changing business needs. As your needs grow, the platform and its performance grows (processing time decrease) — all at a very approachable price point.

Enterprise-grade SSDs, like Micron’s M510DC, are seeing broader deployment. If you’re building a BI/DSS platform with a database like PostgreSQL and want to scale as you grow and still stay on budget, read our technical marketing brief, “Micron M510DC SSD: Cost-Effective Scaling for High-Performance Business Intelligence/Decision Support Systems Using PostgreSQL” to learn more.

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About Our Blogger

Doug is a Senior Technical Marketing Engineer for Micron's Storage Business Unit, with a focus on enterprise solid state drives.